Breeding Roborovski Hamsters

Question
Tammy,
We purchased a male and female Robo Hamster at Christmas time and let
them breed. On February 6th, our female gave birth to a litter of 5. While she
was giving birth, we moved the male to a different cage and they have never
been together since. The babies will be 21 days old on February 27th. Today,
Feb. 26th, we noticed the mother giving birth to 7 new babies. She seemed
very nervous and was not caring for the new babies so I removed the 3 week
old babies to a new cage. They seem to be able to eat on their own. I assume
they will be ok without their mother. I don't understand how she could have
become pregnant again. Have you ever heard of anything like this before?

Answer
Hi Glenn,

this is perfectly normal.

It takes between 20 and 22 days for a female Roborovski to give birth.

On the day the female gives birth she comes into heat again and the male will often help her with the babies just so he can be close enough to mate with her straight away.

He will have mated with her on the day she gave birth and that is why she has now given birth again.

It is always best to take the older babies out when the second litter is born because they will still try to feed and can take away milk from the new litter.

They will be fine on without the mother now and will need to be sexed and seperated into same sex groups by the time they are 4 or 5 weeks old.

Where did you purchase the original two hamsters from?

Kind Regards,

Tammy